Rep. Michael G. Grimm, the second-term congressman from Staten Island who was indicted Monday on federal fraud charges, offered to take care of America’s racial problems once and for all by threatening to break Cliven Bundy in half.

“When it comes to solving the racial divide in this country, I don’t think you can tiptoe around the problem. You need someone who can get right to the source - and break it in two, if needs be,” said a contrite sounding Mr. Grimm. “I could even do something with [Los Angeles Clippers owner] Donald Sterling, maybe throw him over a balcony if that helped make us all more colorblind. I’ll do whatever it takes to make things right for all ethnicities.”

Republican leaders and television commentators who had rallied to Mr. Bundy’s cause after the Bureau of Land Management tried to round up his herd only to find themselves beating a hasty retreat after the rancher’s racially charged comments became public were delighted with Mr. Grimm’s offer to step into the breach.

Sen. Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky and a likely presidential candidate in 2016, who had been one of the most prominent people offering support for Mr. Bundy’s cause, said he “wholeheartedly agrees” with Mr. Grimm’s plan for repairing race relations, hailing it as a 21st century approach to an 18th century problem.

Mr. Paul’s response came a day after Sen. Dean Heller, Republican of Nevada, praised Mr. Grimm for his brave and decisive response to Mr. Bundy’s pronouncements.

Commentators on Fox News, which had championed Mr. Bundy’s cause, also expressed relief that Mr. Grimm was willing to do the dirty work needed to permanently fix race relations – and in a way that would make for compelling television.

“Let me make this plain: I support anything that brings us closer as a nation. And if that means sending an indicted congressman out to Nevada to inflict some justice, then I’m all for it,” Greta Van Susteren of Fox News said in a headline of a post on her blog.

Her fellow commentator Sean Hannity reiterated his distress about government overreach — “armed agents, sharpshooters, snipers, dogs, stun guns” — even as he implored federal prosecutors to grant Mr. Grimm the latitude he needed to repair race relations in the country.

“So people that, for the right reasons, saw this case as government overreach, now are like branded because the one man who can fix things is facing federal fraud charges that he underreported the wages and payroll while running an Upper East Side restaurant,” he said on his radio show Thursday. “Something just doesn’t seem right here.”

Democrats, who were quick to seize on Mr. Bundy’s statements as they moved to discredit the Republican Party, seemed a little unsure of what to make of Mr. Grimm’s offer.

“We laud Congressman Grimm’s pledge to eliminate racial strife in America, but we don’t recall hearing this passion for civil rights from the representative until after he was indicted, leading us to wonder if his stand has more to do with opportunism than idealism,” said Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader.

The Bureau of Land Management seemed open to the idea of sending Mr. Grimm out west to take care of Mr. Bundy, the Nevada rancher who has been battling the federal government’s attempt to remove his cattle from public land.

“We are all for any plan that can resolve our differences with Mr. Bundy while recovering millions for taxpayers from grazing fees and solving race relations along the way,” said a spokesman for the Bureau of Land Management.

At a news conference outside the Federal District Court in Brooklyn, Mr. Grimm; flanked by Loretta E. Lynch, the United States attorney in Brooklyn; and George Venizelos, an F.B.I. assistant director, sought to make the case for dismissing the fraud charges and threatening to manhandle Mr. Bundy.

“I doubt that I am the first member of Congress to offer to fight racial intolerance, but if you let me go out west, I am sure I will be the last,” said a confident Mr. Grimm.

He said his experience of serving in the first gulf war in 1991, working for 11 years as an agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and going undercover on Wall Street to put white-collar criminals behind bars, gave him the tools to fix America’s race problem.

“It’s only difficult because we have allowed it to become complicated,” Mr. Grimm said. “I’m here to make it simple again.”

Asked what he’d do if his threat to break Mr. Bundy in two didn’t fix race relations, Mr. Grimm shrugged.

“There’s always Donald Sterling,” he said.

Philip Maddocks writes a weekly satirical column. He can be reached at pmaddocks@wickedlocal.com.

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